


never a wish better than this

by katayla



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: Anne falls in love.
Relationships: Phillip Carlyle/Anne Wheeler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 65
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	never a wish better than this

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eris_historia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eris_historia/gifts).



It wasn't fair.

It was far from the first time in her life that Anne had thought that. It wasn't fair that her parents were dead. It wasn't fair that the color of their skin made her and W.D.'s talent count for so much less.

And it wasn't fair that she fell in love with Phillip Carlyle at first sight.

+

Phillip Carlyle was rich--or at least used to be--and handsome and white and didn't belong with the rest of them at all. But he stayed and watched and asked questions. He looked everyone in the eye.

"So what's your story?" she asked him after practice one day. He'd sat in the stands the whole time and she'd felt his eyes on her. It made her fly higher, twist faster, and smile harder. When they'd finally landed, W.D. had shaken his head and disappeared. 

"What's my story, what's my act?" Phillip said. "You ask a lot of questions."

She sat down in front of him. "Me and W.D., Lettie, Tom, we don't have many options. You do."

Phillip leaned back and spread his arms. "Tried a few of them. Drank a lot. Wrote a play or two."

"The theater," she breathed. "You wrote plays?"

He jumped down and took a seat next to her and said, "I'll tell you a secret. They weren't very good."

He whispered the last sentence into her ear and she closed her eyes at the warmth of his breath. When she opened them again, he was watching her and smiling.

She scooted away from him, just a little. "And so you gave up all of that to join the circus?"

"I thought it might be interesting."

She stood up and looked down at him. "And?"

"I think I may just have found my place in the world."

+

Anne was sure Phillip had never traveled second class before in his life, but it was all the troupe could afford, even if they _were_ meeting the queen. And she never caught him complaining, no matter how closely she watched him.

"Thank you," she said to him, one morning when they were alone on the deck. He was leaning on the rail and staring out at the sea behind them, but turned to greet her with a smile. He always seemed to be smiling.

She admired him all the more for not asking her what she meant. He locked eyes with her and nodded. "We're all part of the show. It's no good if any one of us is missing."

Anne walked up to his side and they both turned their gaze towards the sea. If she looked straight ahead, all she could see was the ocean. Phillip moved closer to her and, for a whole half hour more, there was nobody in the world except the two of them.

+

A month later, Phillip's hand reached for hers and their fingers tangled together. Her body came alive and Jenny Lind's voice lifted Anne up and, for an instant, she flew higher than she'd ever been. 

Phillip dropped her hand and Anne crashed to the earth. She watched him for a moment longer, but, for maybe the first time since they'd met, he didn't smile and he didn't look at her. And she gazed out into the audience and saw a sea of white faces.

She turned away and disappeared into the depths of the backstage and sat down next to her brother.

"Carlyle causing you trouble?" W.D. asked.

" _They_ are," she said and gestured towards the front of the stage, where the audience was now hidden behind the curtain.

W.D. nodded. "It's different when we're at the museum."

Different in so many ways. When they were on stage, they were appreciated for their talent and oh, Anne wasn't naive. She knew the audience came for the novelty and to goggle at people so different from themselves. But they watched and they cheered and it was almost as if they belonged.

She leaned her head on her brother's shoulder and he put his arm around her and they listened to Jenny Lind sing.

\+ 

It wasn't even a minute. Not even one minute of believing the world could be different and all of Anne's dreams could come true. But there was no life for them outside of the circus and the theater wasn't meant for people like Anne.

Phillip argued his case and then took no for an answer and, damn it, it made him all the more attractive. He didn't pursue her or talk to her about anything except show business. She could almost be fooled into thinking he didn't want her anymore, but then she'd catch him watching her as she flew through the air and it was the one time he didn't try to mask the desire in his eyes. And then she landed and took her bow with W.D. and she'd search the audience and she could never find him. And the cry of her heart came back to her: _it wasn't fair_. But the protesters kept coming and there was no reason to change her mind.

Then he ran into a burning building she wasn't even in.

The idiot.

+

"You're here," Phillip said, when he finally, finally opened his eyes. She leaned down and kissed him.

When they broke apart, he reached up and stroked her cheek. "I thought you--"

"I thought _you_ ," she said, and bent down to wrap her arms around him.

"If you stay, you can't take it back," Phillip said.

Anne responded by climbing the rest of the way into his bed.

+

It was their first performance in the tent and Anne flew through the air and landed by Phillip instead of Barnum. And--it was perfect. He belonged here, part of the troupe, in front of the crowd. He belonged with _her_. They danced and sang and he twirled her to the side of the stage and he kissed her.

And when they kissed a second time, it was a declaration.


End file.
